Top House Democrat says Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene behind Mayorkas impeachment – live | US politics

Chuck Schumer also said negotiations on immigration policy changes “have not concluded”, and warned that “many on the hard right are mightily trying to sink the bipartisan work happening here in the Senate”.

A bipartisan group of senators has for weeks been bargaining over changes to border policy, which Republicans have demanded in exchange for supporting Joe Biden’s request for military assistance to Israel and Ukraine. Those negotiations have not yet resulted in a deal, but rightwing Republicans, most worryingly House speaker Mike Johnson, have attacked them.

In his comments on the Senate floor, Schumer warned that the collapse of talks would imperil two of America’s allies:

For months, we have been true to our word, working with Republicans on border security, listening to their proposals, and coming to agreement on a vast range of issues.

We have not concluded negotiations, so we will keep going to get this done.

Democrats have always been ready and willing to have a debate on the border. We want to get this done, we have continued to work to get this done, and we remain committed – we remain committed – to bipartisanship. Both sides will have to give.

It is unfortunate, but frankly not surprising, that many on the hard right are mightily trying to sink the bipartisan work happening here in the Senate. But in the Senate, our responsibility is clear: we need to put the needs of our country above the interests of party politics.

Because the security of our southern border is on the line.

The security of Israel is on the line.

The health and safety of innocent Gaza civilians is on the line.

The stability of the Indo Pacific region is on the line.

And finally – as every Senator on both sides knows – the survival of Ukraine is on the line.

Senate Democratic leader criticizes Mayorkas impeachment following committee vote

Here’s more from the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo and Lauren Gambino on Cori Bush’s announcement yesterday that she was under federal investigation:

The congresswoman Cori Bush has confirmed that the US Department of Justice is investigating whether the Missouri Democrat misused campaign funds for security services, an accusation she denied as “simply false”.

In a statement, Bush said her campaign was “fully cooperating” with the investigation and said she had always “complied with all applicable laws and House rules”.

“I hold myself, my campaign, and my position to the highest levels of integrity. I also believe in transparency, which is why I can confirm that the Department of Justice is reviewing my campaign’s spending on security services,” said Bush, part of a progressive group of Democratic women known as “the Squad”.

She added that the allegations were rooted in “baseless complaints” raised by rightwing organizations who have long made her a target.

In a lengthy statement, Bush, a nurse and Black Lives Matter activist turned lawmaker who represents the St Louis area, said she has endured threats to her “physical safety and life” since before she took office in 2021.

Bush said that as a rank-and-file member of Congress she is not entitled to receive security protection by the House and has instead used campaign funds to pay for security services.

“I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services,” she said. “Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false.”

Bush, Omar demand apology after ‘racist’ comments from rightwing lawmaker

Speaking of conspiracy theories, the Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports that a progressive House Democrat once published poems and made other statements questioning the facts of the September 11 attack on his personal blog:

Progressive US congressman Jamaal Bowman is seeking to distance himself from conspiracy theories about the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks which he published on a personal blog that he ran before his career in elected office.

The New York representative was linked to the blog in question by the Daily Beast on Monday as he faces a substantial primary challenge from a fellow Democrat over his criticism of Israeli military strikes in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.

Bowman was also grappling with the Daily Beast’s reporting after his 2023 fine and misdemeanor guilty plea for apparently pulling a fire alarm at the US Capitol shortly before the US House was supposed to vote on a government funding bill. Though he maintained that the fire alarm pull was accidental, the House censured Bowman, who was accused of trying to delay the funding bill vote.

“I don’t believe anything that these cranks have said, and my life’s work has proved that,” said a statement that Bowman distributed to media outlets about the far-right conspiracy theories once featured on a blog.

Bowman’s statement alluded to a resolution which condemned the racist white replacement theory that drove a gunman to murder 11 Black people in Buffalo in 2022 and said: “My life’s work has proved that … I’ve called out the endless bullshit of the far right.”

There’s no escaping politics these days, not even if you’re Taylor Swift, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:

Taylor Swift is a “Pentagon asset”, an “election interference psyop” who, with unnamed left-leaning forces, has conspired to “rig” the Super Bowl and then endorse Joe Biden in the presidential election.

That’s according to a raft of influential rightwing figures, who have begun to spread a conspiracy theory that Swift, a pop star, is part of a nefarious plot ahead of November’s presidential election.

Swift has found herself at the center of the rightwing commentariat’s attention in recent weeks after intense media focus on her relationship with Travis Kelce, a star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs football team.

She has been in the crowd as the Chiefs have progressed through the NFL playoffs: on Sunday, the team won the AFC Championship game, and will play in the Super Bowl on 11 February. The attention their romance has received has led to a number conspiracy theories.

“I think – and I’ve said this, I’ve taken a lot of crap for this online – I think they’re using Taylor Swift right now,” Jack Posobiec, an influential rightwing conspiracy theorist, said in a video posted on Truth Social on Monday.

“They’re gearing up for an operation to use Taylor Swift in the election against everything: against Trump, for Biden, they’re gonna get her and all you know they call them the Swifties they’re going to turn those into voters, you watch.”

For an idea of the vibe during the House homeland security committee’s lengthy hearing into impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, here’s video of one Democrat accusing Republicans of kowtowing to “the orange Jesus” with their charges.

It was New Jersey’s Rob Menendez who deployed that figure of speech – “the orange Jesus” being, of course, Donald Trump:

Top House Democrat says Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene behind Mayorkas impeachment

The House homeland security committee convened at 10am yesterday, but it took them until 1am this morning to finally approve the articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, after hours of debate on various amendments offered by both parties. Here’s a recap the marathon hearing, and what happens next:

House Republicans voted along party lines after midnight on Wednesday to move toward impeaching the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, for a “willful and systematic” refusal to enforce immigration laws as border security becomes a top 2024 election issue.

In a charge against a cabinet official unseen in nearly 150 years, the homeland security committee debated all day on Tuesday and well into the night before recommending two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the full House.

The committee Republicans voted in favor, while the Democrats unified against, 18-15.

The partisan showdown reflected the Republicans’ efforts to make the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s hard-line deportation approach to immigration their own.

That approach was mirrored on a second front on Tuesday, as Republicans also lambasted the border deal recently brokered between the Joe Biden White House and a bipartisan group of senators, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Mayorkas, in a letter sent to the Republican chair of the House committee on homeland security before the hearing began, dismissed the impeachment process against him as “politically motivated”.

As effort against Mayorkas moves ahead, White House asks, “Is there anyone House Republicans won’t impeach?”